Friends
by NovaLiliya
Summary: A FF about Chrona x Maka. Based on the Anime, takes place after the official end  might spoil you if you don't know the end ,male Chrona.  started as shortcut
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I neither own the anime nor the characters etc._

_Author's note:In this text Chrona is male.I know nobody is certain about it, he might as well be a she, I just used a he in it bothers you you are welcome to put an "s" in front of every "he" in your mind^^_

Friends

It was the beginning of a whole new world, a new life now.

After the Kishin had been erased from earth and with him the all surrounding madness had been taken away there was a feeling of release and happiness spreading all around no one had felt before.

Still there was much to do now: A lot had been destroyed while war and many had been injured but these things were no big deal, knowing that it was just a matter of time every stone would be back in place and every wound would be healed.

Yes the Kishin was gone and he had taken Arachne right with him. The evil itself was defeated not just once and with all of them one further woman had left the world.

Medusa's death was so small in comparison with the Kishins, hardly anyone shared a word about it at all while she hadn't meant a thing to anybody.

Anybody but one single person.

The frail body of the young Demon Sword Meister drew a slim silhouette onto the stony ground of DWMA's balcony. Chrona rested his chin on his arms which where crossed on top of his knees and regarded the late evening sundown, totally lost in thoughts.

She had used him, harmed him and thrown him away like garbage once he had become useless to her big plans. She had made him suffer so many times, the worst of all when she made him betray his only friends. She, his own mother, had finally almost killed him without hesitation and though a tiny piece of him deep inside was suffering even now for the paradox reason that she was gone.

She had been his whole family, no matter how cruel and hateful she had treated him.

A sigh escaped his lips which turned into a small surprised shriek when a just so well known voice cut the calm.

"Hey Chrona!"

The Demon Sword Master turned around and faced his best friend Maka. The girl with blond pigtails and the strongest character he ever came to knew was standing right behind him and gave him one of her warmest smiles.

"Are you watching the sunset? May I join you?"

After she had beaten the Kishin it had been hard to get close to her because the Death Scythe Spirit had shown his fatherly love with cuddling her half to death until a Shinigami Chop had stopped him.

But when she had finally noticed him standing there her attention had been taken from all others but Chrona. She had been so glad to see him alive after her last impression of him had not really suggested this.

To Chrona she meant the world. She had been the one showing him a small beam of light within his pitiful existence. She had given him a reason to be while he had surrendered to the idea of being worthless so long ago.

She had as well given him the first impression of how it was to be hugged.

In the moment he had recognized Medusa's ambush he hadn't hesitated a second to protect her with his own body. He would give his life away for her without thinking, without any regret, because he knew that, without her, he wouldn't want to stay on earth either.

In this moment she was sitting next to him on the balcony wall her gaze in far distance.

"What where you thinking about until I came here?" she suddenly asked.

Not really knowing what to answer Chrona stared down to his lap some seconds.

"Did you … think about Medusa?" this time her questioning voice was much lower while she knew how sensitive this topic was and it wasn't her intention to hurt him.

When she didn't get an answer this time she put her hand onto Chronas gently.

"Don't let her make you suffer anymore Chrona." she whispered and he looked up at her for the first time she had sat down with him.

"I'm … glad that … she is gone." he managed to say. "She will …never be able to hurt you now."

Maka smiled at him again and wrapped her arms around him.

He unassertive mirrored her movement, not really knowing how to deal with the situation but still somehow enjoying it.

It wasn't the first time that Maka had hugged Chrona. Actually she had hugged him really often lately. But Chrona simply was this type of person on felt like hug-ging, not at least because of his background. Somehow Maka had always felt like it was her duty to give him what he had never gotten in his childhood. She wan-ted him to finally feel comforted. To finally feel love.

She herself still loved Soul who was her partner and would be this forever as she hoped.

The two, Chrona and Soul, where quite different from each other and so she loved both as well in these different ways.

And so it was a mistake of her when she decided without thinking to show a part of life to Chrona she might not be the one to do so for:

When the hug had become long and even Chrona's normally tense body had relaxed into it a bit she brought some distance between them to face him.

He really was a special person, she thought.

"It's all good now…" she said quietly and brushed the one wisp of hair out of his eyes that stuck out of his bangs.

Somehow the whole atmosphere had changed in these few minutes of silence. He noticed the difference clearly but couldn't really say into what. It made him feel nervous and uneasy and he wondered how to deal with how close Maka's face was now. How close her lips where to his. And … how fast the already small distance was decreasing….

Afterwards she couldn't say why but in this moment Maka made their lips met for a soft kiss. It was just a gentle brush, a short touch but it sent millions of little shivers all over his body. He forgot to breath for some seconds until he ran out of oxygen. His mind and his pulse where both fighting a race and a blush started to creep up his cheeks.

It was one of the most fearful moments in his life but though he wished it would last forever.

When they broke apart it was as if the fragile moment fell into pieces. Maka blushed as well but it was shame that colored her face.

With a sudden movement she backed away and covered her lips with one hand.

"Chrona I…"she sought for words that sounded least painful to him.

"Please don't misunderstand me…you are… my best friend!"  
The developing silence became beyond all bearing for her the longer it lasted and finally it was like back then when Soul had gotten the scar on his chest and she had seen him in the hospital room.

Just like then she got up and left the place.

Chrona was on his own again.

His heart was still beating fast and the feeling of her lips was still noticeable.

Uncertain what to think now he just sat there.

"I don't know how to deal with this!" The sentence was repeating in his head like a mantra making him afraid.

There was just one thing he was sure of in these seconds:

The moment in which Maka had asked him to be her friend had been the best in his life. But somehow it had been one of the most painful when she said it this time.

At the horizon the sun had already set.


	2. Chapter 2

Evil had changed the young woman into something beyond human. Her maybe once pretty face had become a bizarre mask with eyes that seemed unable to show any emotions but hatred.

She must have been a weapon, maybe compareable to Tsubaki once but decided to fight on her own, to go without any meister. Her hunger for souls was so strong she wouldn't resist to kill even the most innocent being just to satisfy it.

Stein might have had a use for her if he saw her in these seconds, changing the fingers of her left hand into tiny, sharp blades that looked a lot like disection instruments before rushing in Maka's direction.

The pigtailed girl tighten her grip around Soul in his scythe form, preparing for the coming stroke.

Being thrown back some steps by the force of her combatant Maka

succeeded in blocking the attack, made a turn and swung the scythe around, unfortunately just brushing the quite fast moving woman.

A mocking smile deformed her ugly face even more when she looked up at Maka.

"Your tries are just so sad little one." she grinned.

"Maka, don't let her distract you!" Soul's image appeared in the metal of the scythe, a serious look on his face.

She nodded.

"How cute you two are working together… You seem like a husband and his wife!" The woman went on mocking.

"Shut up!" Maka shouted, running at her. Though she moved fast, the woman was even faster and all of her hits went into nothing.

"So sweet, but I tell you it won't last forever." Saving herself with jumping up onto a lower roof, she blinked at Maka, putting a finger in front of her lips as if to shush her fury. "Now he might like your young shape but soon enough he will break your heart, leaving you behind. I can tell, while it happened to me but I think I was rather lucky so I stopped being a naïve chick just like you and started to go my own way. You might call it evil, I call it powerful."

Not certain what to answer Maka was surprised by Soul taking over the word.

"Hey bitch, stop your annoying monologue, gotta hear these enough when Black Star is around. No one here is going to be in a what-ever-relationship! We're partners, meister 'n' weapon, nothing more."

Turning to Maka now he added "Let's go then!" and expected her to move but nothing happened.

She would never have admitted it but his last words had given Maka a feeling of having received another face punch by Black Star.

A shiver starting at her scalp went down her spine and somehow she felt unbearable silly for having thought different from him. She never said it and now she was glad she didn't but she had thought of them as more than partners in fights.

Much more…

"Maka!" Soul's voice mixed with mischief giggles of that woman got her out of her short trance.

Nevertheless she had been dreaming a bit too long so the sensation of cold metal cutting the flesh of her throat went through her body. warm liquid streamed down her neck, which would have been even more if Soul wouldn't have manifested in his human form and pulled her back when the lady jumped down the roof, ready to kill.

"What the heck are you doing?", he screamed.

"Soul?" Confused by her suddenly calm voice he grind his teeth.

"What?"

"Scythe. Now." Though she acted more than weird to him he obeyed and changed back again.

Without any further words Maka grabbed him and rushed forward again. It might have helped to get into soul resonance with her partner but she knew that, in this moment, she couldn't.

She had to do it different.

Shortly before the two enemies met she trough the scythe over into her left and with this weaker hand. Confusion washed over the woman's features but though she hauled off to strike.

A sharp pain echoed trough Maka when she caught the woman's remodeled hand with her own. She had expected her to block with her weapon again, what was Maka's chance.

Using her right hand to keep the lady in place she used the left to swing the scythe. Before really understanding what had happened the woman's upper body part hit the floor.

Soul changed into human again, taking the red glooming ball which represented the woman's darkened soul and swallowed it.

Maka took a look at her face which still got an expression of surprise on it.

"He will break your heart, hm?", she mumbled.

Suddenly a hand took hers.

"Did you say something?", Soul asked, examining the cut at Maka's hand.

"No. Nothing…"

"Than let's go, Stein should take a look at your wounds."


	3. Chapter 3

Darkness had come over Deathcity. The moon hung in the sky, smiling his weird smile on the few ones wandering around restless this night.

One of them was a young meister with pigtails and fresh cuts from a fight that had been casual but then again…

Maka couldn't sleep. She had left the flat she shared with Soul since years and which suddenly looked so different.

Wondering why she had seen it all so different from his view she crossed streets, walking without to have an aim.

Somehow it made her angry how he could simply say stuff like that but on the other hand was it wrong to be mad at someone for feeling in a different way.

But when he said they were nothing but partners…it had sounded so wrong.

When Maka raised her head she noticed she had reached the stairway of DWMA.

Suddenly another thought appeared on her mind.

She remembered something she had done days ago, something she had deeply regretted from then on.

When she had kissed Chrona she had left a permanent mark on the already so fragile soul of his. She fully understood it now and it hit her harder that the knifes of that woman some hours ago. It was pure irony it should be her to hurt him so bad while she had always tried to protect him from Medusa.

Without noticing she clenched her fist. She wouldn't let him suffer like that, she had to excuse and try her best to rebuilt what she broke.

The moon was still watching when she hurried up the long stairway of DWMA.


	4. Chapter 4

The web of dark corridores of DWMA lay in silence when Maka stepped in and so just the sound of her feet was hearable. She fortunately wasn't as helpless as Mary concerning her orientation senses. Her will to pay compensation to Chrona for what she did made her hurry along the hallways until she finally reached the door she had been looking for.

Just now her strength and will seemed to leave her. Uncertain what to even say and wondering why she hadn't thought about that first she stood in front of the door, one hand raised to open it, but still motion-less.

"Courage… It really seems to be all." she thought.

On the other side of the door a slim figure leaned against the cool stony wall, this time not making any shadows while the room already was too dark for it. A pillow pressed against his chest, Chrona was deep in thought. It was days ago that this…very special thing had happened but he still felt as confused as in the second Maka had backed away.

Longing to understand it he had tried to go trough the memory again and again, but he never really made it while it always somehow overwhelmed him and made him end up mumbling that he just couldn't deal with it.

His heartbeat still used to raise when he remembered the soft feeling of her lips and pain still took his breath when the image of her shocked face afterwards appeared on the surface of his mind again.

It was much worse than the physical pain he felt in his moment when blood burst out of his back again and a shrill voice urged itself into his thoughts.

"What the hell? Will you ever leave this damn corner again fool? I don't wanna get old here!"

Ragnarok threw his tiny fists on his neck but though it still did hurt he hadn't the slightest success.

"Chronaa! Just forget that bitch, who cares about that flat-chest-girl?"

In front of the rooms door Maka felt rage raise in her not so totally flat chest but it vanished as fast as it came and was replaced by a strong sense of guilt when she heard a tiny voice answer.

"I…I do."

"But why? You know that slut is just toying? Man, you don't mean a shit to her so why sitting around and lament yourself when she's out there having fun?"

"Shut up Ragnarok!"

Chrona almost jumped out of his skin by the sudden voice. He looked up and found Maka standing in his room by the door.

"M – Maka!" he stammered.

"Oh my! There she is your little slut, maybe she wants to have some other fun with you now…" Ragnarok teased.

"I told you to shut up!" Maka repeated and went over to them.

"I have to talk to Chrona now and I tell you, if you will intrude the slightest bit, I'm gonna talk to the Shinigami and make him get you out of Chrona's body, replacing you with normal blood."

In general this menace would not have worked but the way Maka said it it sounded dead serious and even Ragnarok obeyed though he just some further insults while disappearing in Chrona's back again.

He didn't know what to do or to say when she came closer and kneeled down in front of him, lowering herself on his level.

First Maka was staring to the ground but then she pulled herself together and looked up at his face.

It hurt her to see him so…scared of her while she had always been the one he had trusted in.

"Chrona…please…" For some seconds she was uncertain again, but then she took deep breath and started to talk.

"Chrona…I never wanted to hurt you! Please, I want you to know that you mean so much to me! And I …know now…how it feels.."

She shortly closed her eyes. Anger was raising in her again, anger of herself that she felt so close to tears right now when she did come to comfort Chrona and not to be comforted.

A shy and trembling hand suddenly lay down on hers. Maka opened her eyes again and noticed Chrona was somehow closer now. He had leaned forward and though she could see he was still scared und uncertain, he really tried to comfort her.

"Of course he does.", Maka thought. Unlike Soul Chrona always noticed if there was something wrong with her, if she was upset, simply because he had experienced sadness in his life and so could easily recognize it.

Actually this didn't really make her feel less guilty. But though…

Maka tentatively took his hand in hers and looked down on it. Chrona mirrored her head move and so both watched their carefully entwined fingers.

He had a feeling as if his skin would burn where it had contact to Maka's. He didn't really know how to express it but he somehow knew it was because he touched something he could never have.

It was the same feeling he had when he had imagined Medusa loving him as a child. How she would have patted his head or said some-thing nice. But this time the feeling was worse while he had tasted some of the never hoped. He had tasted her lips already.

Torn out of his thoughts by Maka slowly raising Chrona's hand up to her face he sensed a shiver.

The voice in Maka's head, screaming how wrong this was, that she was cruel and selfish, couldn't make her resist what was urged to be done from deep inside and with this she lead his fingers to her lips, gently brushing them in a peck.

"M – Maka…!"Chrona's voice would have broken the silent moment if it had be loud enough but it wasn't more than a whisper.

Though it made her look up at him, her eyes digging holes into his, before she suddenly pulled him in a close hug.

The mantra was back in Chrona's head and his muscles stiffened like the ones of an animal pretending to be dead just to not being attacked but then her voice, neither a whisper like his nor the self confident tone he used to know of her, reached his ear:  
"Chrona…please…you are my best friend…" first it seemed to be all she wanted to say but then she noticed there was something else. She wasn't sure if it was right to say, but after a thing she had been so sure of it's truth had turned out as wrong she didn't care and did, what her feeling told her to say.

"I like you…a lot.."

If this was toying like Ragnarok called it, Chrona knew he wouldn't be able to bear it. But nevertheless he didn't manage to resist it.

Unlike his mother he had never been able to built up an emotional wall against the world.

This was the exact reason why he couldn't stop her when she made their lips touch a further time.

But this time it was different. It seemed to be meant as a brush, a peck again but they somehow missed the point in which they were supposed to part again.

Maka's lips felt warm and soft again, but in opposite to the last time they didn't taste sweet but salty, like she did cry this night but as Chrona wouldn't dare to ask, while she wouldn't want to admit.

She leaned in the kiss a bit more, the warning voice in her head trailing off as well as the bitterness she had tried not to feel but secretly had though until now.

Her hands found Chrona's again and placed them on her hips what made his heart skip again. He still hadn't quite the heart to believe what was just happening and getting more and more confused when rested her arms around his neck carefully, deepening the kiss.

He wanted to ask her how to deal with this situation but she hold him in a way he physically couldn't.

Anybody else could have never done this but at least this was Maka, the girl which he would have followed everywhere, no matter how far it was. This thought again shocked him: It was Maka! Maka was just kissing him!  
When she stopped and brought some space between them again Chrona gasped.

"M – Maka! P-p-please d-don't…go!"

It was untypical to see Chrona giving name to his fear so obviously and it gave Maka a stab to see it while she knew this fear was caused by her.

"I won't. I will stay with you Chrona, I promise."

Trust is not easy to built up, especially if it is about a topic which concerns the very deepest places of your soul, which leaves you naked for the eye of your opponent. But in this case Chrona trusted. When Maka sat there in front of him, just like in the past when she asked to be friends, her eyes where so clear and readable to him and without having any solid proof he knew it was true, even what she added in a whisper:

"I'll stay forever."

This night Maka showed Chrona a part of the world, she had wanted to show him since she knew him. She didn't go back to her flat but stayed the night.

In the morning he would experience for the first time how it feels to wake up next to the one the heart and soul longed for. He was her best friend and shortly before they had fallen asleep next to each other she had told him again. This time her words had felt the best from all times she ever said it.  
In a room, deep inside DWMA, reachable through a labyrinth of corridors, two slim silhouettes where drawn onto the wall, formed by two meisters that slept with their hands entwined.

The sun would soon rise.

…..

To be true this fanfic should have been a short cut. I had just planned to make the first chapter, but actually the comment by blackbloodbaby made me go on and so it did get a happy end.: )  
That's why this ff is for you then blackbloodbaby. : )

Thank you for your comment.: )


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